Second Chance Love
by qtips rescue me
Summary: Take a look through Sesshoumaru's eyes as he slowly understands the meaning of love,with the help of Rin,a dead rat,sunsets,and fireflies.


A/N: Holy crap, I'm on a huge writer frenzy type of thing. Including this fic, I have started (or is working on) 3 others at once. Ah well, this is a one shot, one of those deep stories I guess...so please review, all are welcome, (It's what I live off of when I write) and on with the fic!  
  
I don't own InuYasha, or in this case, Sesshoumaru and Rin. If you try to sue me, I almost have no money anyway. -;;  
  
I look across the horizon, the colors painted and dripping from the indigo clouds have no affect on me as it does Rin, her eyes growing wide with delight I have not yet experienced. Such a strange girl indeed, fascinated and...even touched by the sky.   
  
"Look, my Lord!" She giggles, pointing her small hand at the sunset, as if I haven't already. The tall grass almost consumes her whole body, stopping at her chest. She sort of cups her hands together as her eyes grow softer, "Pretty..." She muses.   
  
I look toward the sunset, untouched. It is a sunset, the sun sets everyday, it has always been so. Why does Rin admire it now? Sure, the colors are bit different, but the colors change almost everyday.   
  
A silence hangs through the air.   
  
This silence is unused to.   
  
Jaken...Where is he?   
  
"Jaken?" I call half-heartedly. He comes stumbling through the grass.   
  
"Yes, me lord?"   
  
"Go find us...a mushroom."   
  
"But why?" He whines. Such an irritating sound.   
  
"Rin is sick. She needs a mushroom to heal. Go, or else, you shall die." Muttering and cursing, the toad leaves. Rin cocks her head at.   
  
"But...I'm not sick..."   
  
"Shhhh..." I tell her, holding a finger to lips. She giggles, turning back to the sunset. But suddenly she gasps, bending down and searching the grass. What is she doing? Humans never seem to stop amazing me.   
  
Their stupidity.  
  
Their feelings.   
  
Especially this girl here, who is now holding...a rat in her hands, it has been dead for days.   
  
"Please..." She begs. I know what she wants me to do. But it's a rat. Rats live about a year or so, maybe further if their not picked up by birds. Rin has no connection to the rat. She has never seen the rat before in her life. Yet now I witness tears racing each other down her now small and delicate features.   
  
Such a strange girl indeed...  
  
"Rin, it is only a rat." I tell her. More tears rim her eyes, making them glassy.   
  
"I know...but don't you think it deserves...a second chance?" There are moments like these how I find this small girl, with a small amount of intelligence enough to chase fireflies at night without anything to catch them with, to have this deep psychology lodged out of her mouth. She continues as I'm caught off guard. "You gave me a second chance..."   
  
That was true.  
  
But that was different.   
  
"Rin...why do you care so much for the rat?" I let on that I'm annoyed to ask such simple, stupid questions, to stoop so low that I have to not know something this human girl does. My hand absentmindedly waves at the sunset. "And the sun has always set so."   
  
She blinks, the rat reeking of blood, but she doesn't seem to mind.   
  
"Not everyone can see another sunset again..." Her words she says carefully. "But I'd like to give everyone the chance..." This does not help. Nevertheless, I ponder. Why does she see the sunset differently, through her eyes? She is human, yes, but she isn't as stupid as most. Than it hits me, when I look at the dead rat.   
  
Mortality.   
  
I am demon, I don't face death for a long time. But these humans only live for such a short period of time, being so weak and helpless and stupid that they are. So...I guess that they must not take sunsets for granted, granting that this might be their last one. I glance toward the sunset, trying to see something in it. Is this what humans have to live for? A simple cycle of the sun?   
  
I look toward the girl with the dead rat, trails of tears down her somewhat dirty face. She lives for making pointless things that are just going to die anyway, get a second chance?   
  
I could understand if she loved this now dead and decaying rat. I have seen such emotion demonstrated in InuYasha when he protects that wench of his. Such emotion blinds him of logic, yet makes him stronger. I find it strange, how emotion powers you up psychically. I don't understand.   
  
Perhaps I was not meant to.   
  
But Rin, she has no connection with this dead rat, has never known it personally, never come across it before. Then why does she still care for it?   
  
As if reading my distant amber eyes, she almost answers me,  
  
"My Lord, think of it this way; birds eat rats, right? And I eat birds. Without the rats, there wouldn't be any birds."   
  
"Perhaps. But are there not plenty more rats out in this field?"   
  
"Yes...but...this one..." She raises it a little higher. How can she stand the smell of it? "Is young, I think. And I think it should have a chance to raise a family...and be eaten...and then maybe I'll be at peace."   
  
"The rat bothers you, Rin?"   
  
"It being dead."   
  
"I can't say I understand your logic, girl." I feel pathetic, not understanding what a small human girl does. Stupid, more like.   
  
I don't do feeling stupid.   
  
"Well..." She's thinking. "It will help the rat, you know? Maybe it didn't want to die. What if it's family is in danger, and this is the father rat, and-"   
  
"What if the rat didn't want to live?" she looks stunned. She blinks innocently again.  
  
"We all want to live...even is we say we don't want to, we really do down inside. And when we die, we think of all the things we couldn't achieve, all the things we could've down, and it makes us want a second chance, My Lord." She sighs, and that's when I remember she has been dead once already. I can't help but notice the "we" that she kept saying in her sentence. What did she mean by we? I state my question, again feeling ashamed. I shall take my anger out on Jaken later.   
  
"I mean, all of us." She spreads her arms wide, transitioning the rat to her left hand. "Here...on earth..." She points excitedly at the fading sunset. "Everyone who can see that..." I can't see what she's taking about. A sun cycle, yes, but there was nothing magical about it. She continues, "I want to help whoever I can, give them the chance I got."   
  
And suddenly, it becomes clear to me what this 'love' emotion really is.   
  
I love Rin, because I gave her a second chance.   
  
Just as that girl InuYasha travels around with gives him a second chance every time he screws up. Which has got to be a lot.   
  
And even though she doesn't know the rat personally, she wants to give it a second chance to know her.   
  
I look toward the sunset, seeing if it looks any different.   
  
If she loves the cycle of the sun, she must depend on it.   
  
She depends on it to count the days she has left to live.   
  
As she depends on me for survival.   
  
And gradually, as she depends on it, she begins to care for it.   
  
As she is depending on me to bring that rat back to life, to give it a second chance to experience this thing called 'love.' The feeble emotion that can make you strong and at the same time weak.   
  
Rin wants to give that rat a chance to love her.   
  
Looking at the slowly dying sunset, it is my turn to admire the colors that light the sky as it slowly dies away. I look back at Rin, who smiles at me. I pretend to be annoyed.   
  
"Set it down Rin." She yelps happily and carefully sets it down. I bring out the sword of healing and run through it, reviving it almost immediately. It looks around, perhaps perplexed, and dashes away through the grass. I expect to see Rin disappointed, but instead, she is skipping toward a patch of flowers humming happily.   
  
What a strange girl indeed.   
  
She comes back, flowers of assorted kinds scattered throughout her arms. She hands one to me, grinning widely. I take the flower, and examine it closely. Just an ordinary flower. But I keep it just the same. Because I want Rin's second chance to be worthwhile, and I want her to be happy. I pretend to be disgusted as I stick it behind my ear, and she squeals happily, hugging my leg.   
  
My dignity is lost. Something only Rin is been able to accomplish. My sanity must be also, for I am feeling emotions words could no longer describe. I can no longer hear Rin as she sings happily and begins chasing the fireflies lingering about, sleepy from their daytime rest. I sigh, sitting down softly, letting the grass tickle my neck. It was pointless, and hopeless, to chase fireflies without a net.   
  
What strange girl indeed.   
  
"Would you like to watch the ending cycle of the sun tomorrow?" I ask her, taking quick glances around to make sure no one is listening. My voice is cold, as always. She smiles.   
  
"Of course, Sesshoumaru!" She laughs happily as she catches a firefly between her hands, gasping in astonishment.  
  
Maybe there is hope yet. 


End file.
